Britain can look forward to fairly strong economic growth, falling interest rates and firm Sterling, Barclays Bank Plc chairman-elect John Quinton said. “We should see a reasonable decline in interest rates in the next few months, but not a great one and not a rapid one,” Quinton told a press luncheon. He said that whereas the British economy is growing at about three pct, he expects only “minor” growth for the western industrialized world as a whole.

President Reagan today sent a classified report to Congress on his plan to protect Kuwaiti oil tankers with U.S. military escorts. Congressional officials said the report, received by House Speaker Jim Wright and Senate majority leader Robert Byrd, will not be made public. Congress has demanded a detailed security plan on how U.S. warships and servicemen would be protected from possible attack in the Gulf region, scene of the prolonged war between Iran and Iraq.

Delegates from 46 countries are gathering for the 20th meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) amid concern over the bank"s role in aiding regional development. The three-day meeting, the first to be held in Japan since the bank"s inaugural meeting in Tokyo in 1966, will open tomorrow with political controversy dogging its heels. Taiwan, one of the ADB"s founders, will boycott the meeting for the second year in succession in protest against China"s admission last year.

Changes by the USDA in its posted county prices have successfully increased PIK-and-roll activity as a way to pull corn out of government stockpiles, with the resulting jump in free supplies pressuring terminal corn basis values, cash grain dealers said. Processors dropped spot Chicago corn basis bids three cents after covering most of the April needs this week, with river corn basis bids following CIF Gulf corn values lower. The surge in PIK-and-roll also pressured corn futures, with May settling today down three cents per bushel at 1.

First Interstate Bank Corp Chairman Joseph Pinola said he was not optimistic about the prospects for a resolution of the Brazilian debt situation during the current year. “I am not as optimistic personally on a resolution as some others are,” Pinola told reporters after the company’s annual meeting. He said it did not seem likely that the Brazilian government has the will to take the steps necessary to resolve their domestic economic difficulties.

Plans for a new-style European Community (EC) free of damaging budget wrangles receive their first full review from EC foreign ministers today, but are unlikely to gather much support. Diplomats said key EC capitals would voice strong criticism of proposals that would lead to a sharp increase in EC budget payments by bringing member states" contributions more into line with national wealth. They said the EC"s current paymasters, Britain, France, and West Germany, would lead the opposition to the plans, designed to enable the community meet the challenges of the 1990s.